Mental illness patients who smoke are discriminated against by having separate smoking rooms in hospitals closed. As a result, they are being forced to leave the hospital grounds to smoke if they are not in locked units. This is unsafe for patients and others.

There are many factors we can't control that affect our cancer risk, like growing older, our genetic profile and having a family history of the disease. But the good news is that there is a lot we can control. It's as simple as making healthy choices every day and having policies in place that protect our health. Here are the top 10 ways to lower your risk of cancer.

The case of Quebec provides a cautionary tale, as the prevalence of tobacco use has hovered around 24 per cent since 2003 despite a doubling of the price of cigarettes. And to the extent that tobacco taxes do reduce consumption, they can end up reducing total tax receipts, thus working against the competing and contradictory government objective of raising revenue.

The tendency for governments to increasingly regulate the advertising industry, whether in the name of consumer protection or for health concerns, is already on full throttle. After cigarette packs, don't be surprised if sooner or later you see plain bags of chips on the shelves of convenience stores, or plain-packaged chocolate bars. Politicians stand on a steep, slippery slope that could lead to private property and intellectual property violations, and destruction of brands. The economic consequences should be weighted carefully. And such policies backed by solid empirical data, not merely good intentions.

It is true that smoking is a major public health concern, and one might be tempted to say that the change in behaviour is desirable, whatever the effect on government revenue. Again, Laffer tells us that things are more complicated than it seems. While it is true that some people are deterred from smoking by tax increases, this is not the case of all smokers.

Those approaches, for unhealthy eating in particular, can be a real challenge, because they bang hard against the reactor core of our economic system -- consumption. Consumption and lots of it. Like tobacco, the fight for healthy eating will challenge the heart of what companies do: sell as much as they can.

The pain and terror that seem, for those first few days, like everything -- seen, smelled, tasted, heard, felt -- will be replaced by a longing similar to the kind one feels towards an old paramour. It is even possible that you will be capable of returning to the warm arms of the infrequent cigarette at some distant speck in the future without drowning again in the compulsion.

Even if you don't share my live-and-let-live philosophy, there are some pragmatic and empirical arguments to be made against several of the measures promoted by the very well-organized and very well-funded worldwide anti-tobacco movement.

Tobacco is much more than money for Canada's Mohawk people -- it's a source of economic independence, a non-handout form of income that goes well with aspirations of independence and self-reliance. And these are good and necessary goals. Yes, it's also been deemed illegal and is likely going to draw the communities into a collision with the federal government, but in the meantime tobacco is a desperately-needed investment in the community. Until we discover oil or invent a better iPad (and I hope we do both), tobacco is the best we've got. We're beginning to make some real money through entrepreneurship, and if it takes cigarettes and gambling in the beginning, so be it.

This is precisely what happened in Canada in the early 1990s. Indeed, following a steep increase in duties and taxes applicable to tobacco products by the federal government and the provinces, a vast illegal trade in cigarettes sprang up. Contraband's share in the Canadian tobacco market jumped from 1 per cent in 1987 to approximately 31 per cent by the end of 1993.

Ever since launching our project to put climate change warning labels on gas pumps, people have frequently told me, "My friend still smokes, so warning labels don't work." They draw a very general conclusion from a very particular example. First, if you want to learn about the effectiveness of tobacco warning labels, you need to look at the studies. Second, if want to learn about the potential impact of our warning labels, you need to look at human psychology and the nature of climate change.

It's astounding how many people who would likely not otherwise drop garbage on the ground see nothing wrong with flicking cigarette butts without regard for where they land. It may seem trivial, but it's not.

Facebook's profits are tied to a morally questionable business model; one that is addictive, and insidious for users. For all the good that Zuckerberg's company has done for reconnecting people, and letting them communicate with one another, Facebook exists to extract from those relationships the secrets of what makes us tick consumers.

Climate scientist Peter Gleick recently leaked documents from the Heartland Institute's board of director's meeting, proving the organization is using its taxpayer-supported status to spread lies and misinformation. Stealing is wrong, but Heartland is wrong when it lies about the most serious threat to humanity.

Only you can manage your own diet and your own calorie intake. No government, no restaurant, no physician can do it for you. It's this complexity that makes personal health responsibility so important in reversing the obesity epidemic.

Credit is due to the Ottawa government for having picked Ms. Tarbox as their new poster child. But for every Barb Tarbox, there is a James Dean. For every death statistic, there is a hero, real or fictitious who has beaten the odds and has come out on top.